A cup of tea a day can cut the risk of dementia in older people in half.
Women in particular can ward off memory decline by drinking tea, especially if they have more than a mug each day. Green tea has long been claimed to help with everything from weight loss to cancer prevention. But a study by the University of Singapore found black or oolong tea, popular in China, works even better for the brain.
Drinking these types of tea regularly was found to cut dementia risk by 53 per cent. By comparison, green tea reduced the risk by just 43 per cent. The key is various compounds in tea that are believed to protect against the inflammation which can lead to Alzheimer’s.
Assistant Professor Lei Feng, from the National University of Singapore, said: ‘Our findings have important implications for dementia prevention. ‘Tea is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. The data from our study suggests that a simple and inexpensive lifestyle measure such as daily tea drinking can reduce a person’s risk of developing neurocognitive disorders.’
Researchers looked at 950 people. They found those carrying a gene making it more likely they develop Alzheimer’s saw the risk of dementia drop even further from drinking tea, to an 86 per cent reduction.